The Journey to Freedom Podcast
Journey to Freedom serves as an exclusive extension of the Living Boldly with Purpose podcast series—a platform that inspires powerful transformation and growth. Journey freedom is a podcast hosted by Brian E. Arnold. The Journey to Freedom is an our best life blueprint exclusively designed for black men where we create a foundational freedom plan. There are five pillars: Identity, Trust, Finances, Health and Faith.
The Journey to Freedom Podcast
Dropping 100 Pounds and Finding Purpose: A Story of Discipline and Determination
What happens when you decide to completely transform your life against all odds? Eric's journey from self-hatred to self-empowerment is a masterclass in resilience and reinvention.
Growing up in Albany, Georgia, Eric Seay was always "the fattest kid" in any room. At 325 pounds, he couldn't bear to look at himself in photos or videos – a profound disconnection that followed him into young adulthood. Football became his escape route, his ticket out of a small town with limited opportunities. Despite being told he was "too short" for Division I schools at 6'1", Eric refused to give up, eventually earning a starting position at Middle Tennessee State through sheer determination and transforming his body enough to catch his coaches' attention.
When COVID-19 hit, Eric and his brother discovered Forex trading, triggering a series of life-altering decisions. Frustrated by unfulfilled scholarship promises and unsafe pandemic practices, Eric made the bold choice to opt out of football and eventually drop out of college entirely – a decision that temporarily fractured family relationships but forced him to stand on his own principles. For three years, he cycled through jobs at FedEx, DoorDash, and furniture moving, all while pursuing trading and fitness with unwavering commitment.
The breakthrough came when Eric discovered personal development coach Wes Watson, whose message of self-improvement resonated deeply. Investing in himself yielded dramatic results – dropping from 260 to 220 pounds in just three months and continuing his transformation. Now 100 pounds lighter than his heaviest weight, Eric has found purpose beyond trading or football. At just 25, he's channeling his experiences into helping others achieve their own transformations through mindset, fitness, and nutrition.
What makes Eric's story so compelling isn't just the physical transformation, but how he converted self-hatred into self-empowerment. Have you been waiting for permission to transform your own life? Follow Eric's journey and discover what's possible when you refuse to quit on yourself.
We went 24 hour days smoking weed and just locked in on the same computer, going up and down, just going through the course, the course, the course, the course, trying to figure out the basics and how to trade and make money.
Speaker 2:Now I'm ready to risk my of the Journey to Freedom podcast. I'm Dr B on your host and when we think about what life brings us and we think about all the different things we could be doing and how blessed we truly are to be able to wake up every single day. Today I was walking this morning. I'm here in Denver, colorado, and the temperature is like, I don't know, 28 or 27 or something like that. Wind chill is like 13 or 14. And I was just thinking about how fortunate I am to be able to wake up this morning, how fortunate I am to be able to get up and go out on a walk and to have two legs that are still working.
Speaker 2:You know, the older I get, the more I start thinking about.
Speaker 2:you know, 120 years from now you know, none of us are here, right, and so all we can do is the legacy, and you know what we can leave behind. And the older you get, the closer that comes to saying, wow, what am I going to do? And it was so neat to you know. Just ask you. You know, what are you excited about? You sold me working on me, you know. And there's so many people who don't do that, people who don't do that. There's so many people who just exist that, just, they don't progress because they get stuck in spots where you just go wait a minute. Well, what are you going to do? Well, you know. And then they start complaining, right, they complain about you know where they live. They complain about how much money they make. They complain about their job.
Speaker 2:They complain about and then I want to say, well, what are you doing to make it better? Well, I can't do nothing, I have no time to do nothing, but we always got time right. If you're watching TV or you know, like, how many basketball games did you watch in the last, you know, in the last two months? Because all of those guys are, you know they're living their dreams right. They travel all over the country and they're playing games and enjoy. You know, if they're baseball players, they're playing a hundred-some game or whatever. It is a season left and we're watching them, which I'm not saying is a bad thing and I'm not saying don't go to. I love watching football, I love watching basketball, I love watching baseball, but not at the expense of me working on me, not at where I take that away from me so that I can. Sometimes I have those conversations. I go to the barbershop or I go wherever we're hanging out and they'll know all the stats of whoever the player is. Right, lebron.
Speaker 2:I can tell you everything I know about LeBron. Then you ask about their kids. You know they lost, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just sad, and so I just love the fact that you're on and you're willing to talk to us about some of the things that you're doing and you know, I know I've asked you to tell your story and you know, and then we'll just kind of go from there and chop it up. But it's just so neat because you know the journey to freedom. I don't know if you've been able to watch any of these podcasts, but we're at about 150 episodes now and it's all black men who are doing things to work on themselves, doing things to make our world a better place, doing things to make sure that they leave those legacies. And so let me hear your story and where you're at and we'll just chop it up after that. So thanks.
Speaker 1:Hey, well, my name is Eric C and I'm from a small town named Albany, georgia, and my journey started when I first wanted to play football. I was always a football type of guy, sports type of guy, but I gravitated and fell in love with football and I was always a bigger kid. I was always the fattest kid In a friend group, any group, any association, I was always the biggest. So from five years old, from me being able to walk to now, I've always been the biggest, like the biggest kid ever, and that was my biggest problem with me, because I never. I'm 25 years old and from the time I could talk and walk to 24 years old, I never, I've never, found love for myself and I hated looking at myself in the mirror. That was my biggest problem. I never recorded myself, I never took pictures. I hated pictures only because I hated looking at that person in that picture or in that video and knowing that person was me. I didn't like that. That image, me and that image. We never got along. So, me being a bigger kid, all I did was put all my focus into something I was good at, which was football. So I put my focus in the football through middle school and high school and I made it a dream and a goal of mine to use football as a way out, use football as an escape to get away from that small town, because back in town there's nothing but violence and drugs and this and that the normal black person is from the hood, ghetto. Yeah, I know everybody, every black person, not every black person but if you're from the hood or the ghetto, they tell you to use sports to get out. So I was like, okay, I'm going to use sports to get out of my situation better my situation, because my family, we weren't poor, but we weren't rich either. So we were good middle class and my people did everything they could and their power to make sure me and my brother had everything we needed and to stay out the streets. So we use sports to stay out the streets and I use football all the way up. I use football to get me to high school.
Speaker 1:I got to high school and I wanted to go play D1 football. I felt like I was good enough to play D1 football, but everybody told me I was too short because I'm 6'1 and I was around 315, 300, 315 pounds. Everybody told me I was too short, but I had all the skills and the requirements that they wanted, except for the height. That was the only thing stopping me from going to Alabama or Ohio State or Michigan or anything like that. So I ended up getting a call from one of my teammates and he told me that this school would allow me to come play with him, me and my teammate. We would be able to come play at the school Middle Tennessee State as preferred walk-ons, because they liked it our film and they didn't have enough scholarships for us so we would be able to earn a scholarship. So we said, okay, cool, we'll go do that. Knowing us, knowing our grind, knowing how we perform, we were good to go.
Speaker 1:We get to school 2017, I'd say summer, late summer fall, right before fall, because we had not fall break, what we had. It's called fall camp. We went in fall camp, so we didn't go work out with them and it was just straight us until fall camp. We got fall camp 2017 and that's when college started. We got adjusted. I didn, and that's when college started. We got adjusted.
Speaker 1:I didn't play the first year. I sat in Murfreesboro, tennessee, the whole year on the practice squad and just putting in reps, trying to figure out how am I going to get on the field and earn a scholarship. So my people didn't have to pay out of pocket for school. First year went by. They were still overlooking me. I was doing everything right that they wanted to see in the rooms, but I never got a shot or a chance. Because to me I felt like it was favoritism, because they wanted all the seniors. The seniors came in together, the first five offensive line, because I played offensive line. So the seniors, they came in together so they wanted them to lead together on a good, high note. Starting stats looking good. I was like, okay, I get that, I get that. You go to the NFL, you fill your drinks, okay, cool.
Speaker 1:Second year came around and I'm like the same thing was going on. They were looking at me, they were throwing me out there, giving me a chance, but nothing really was popping off how I wanted to and I'm like my people still coming out of pocket for school, so I can't, I got to make some shit. I got to make something happen right now. So I got on the phone with my mom during the season, like beginning of the season, and I'm like, yeah, this ain't working. I'm going. Yeah, this ain't working. I don't have to go to another school because I know I'm better than all these guys that they putting up over me. It's just they got scholarships so they finna invest in their money first before they look at me and give me a shot. And she told me she said just sit down, trust God and this is your plan. Just stay down, put the work in and it all happens for you. If you put the work in, you do what you're supposed to do. So I listened to it. I took the advice. I said, okay, cool, I went. I first got into college.
Speaker 1:I came into Middle Tennessee State fall camp at 325 pounds, 325, 6'1, my third year. Going into my third year, I ended up dropping down to like 290, 295. Because I knew I was too fat to move around, I wasn't doing and taking the precautions and the steps that they wanted to see and they wanted to take, because I was too slow, I was out of shape, always coming in last place and something other than lifting weights. So I was just locked in on me. Everything was about me. I went to classes just because my parents paid for classes and stuff like that to make sure I stayed on the field, but everything was about me getting in shape, getting to the best of my ability to become my highest self so I can get on the field, perform and get to my dream, which was the NFL. So I got on the 295, and they started bragging towards the linemen offense and defense linemen. How Eric C got in shape just to get on the field, how Eric C did, is to get our attention. So I got their attention with me getting my body right, getting in shape, because nobody else was getting their body right. It was just, yeah, on scholarship, trying to do what they do perform. So, after I got my body right, well, while I was getting my body right, I'm constantly after practice. I'm the one standing longest after practice, I'm the one putting in the work, I'm the one going into detail on what they want to see. Become phenomenal at what they want to see, become phenomenal at what they want to see and execute what they want to see on the field and on tape. So I'm doing that while losing weight, getting in shape. This that is that. And I finally came around the fall camp and I'm still prefer walking.
Speaker 1:I came around the fall camp and they started progressing me into the lineup. I was. I was like fourth field string scout team. They moved me up the lineup. I was like fourth, fifth string scout team. They moved me up to third string, they moved me up to second string and eventually I beat out the first string guy and my offense coordinator. He told me we had a big offensive meeting Because we played Michigan, we played the University of Michigan, september 2nd and I think that was the first Saturday game of the season and we had an offensive meeting, like it was a week before the game.
Speaker 1:I think it was that Friday, two weeks before the game, that Friday night and we had a big offensive meeting and the offensive coordinator, he was talking to us about the game and how people done developed this. That just primed us up for the game. And he ended up calling me out like out of the blue. He called me out. He said ARC, stand up. I stood up in front of everybody and he was like this is the definition of discipline, consistency and putting in the work and the action to get to a starting job. And he told me in front of everybody that I was going to be starting against the University of Michigan. My first game, my first snap ever at Middle Tennessee State against Michigan in front of 120,000 fans. Like it broke the season record 10-D record. Yeah, it was 120,000 there. That was the first game and everybody congratulated me. They was like you ready, you ready, you nervous. I'm like nervous. Why would I be nervous? I've been training for this moment.
Speaker 2:I've been working my whole life.
Speaker 1:I've been working my whole life. For this moment I'm ready, if anything. So before the game I say that Monday or Tuesday before the game, my head coach called me in and he was telling me about a scholarship. He was telling me to just keep going. We don't have any scholarships right now, but eventually, before the year is over, you'll get your scholarship and you'll be good to go. So I played the first game, had a phenomenal game. The next game, we had Duke. The next game we had Iowa. We went to Iowa playing all the NFL prospects and I'm just doing my thing. I'm doing my thing. The season go on and I'm still. I start the whole season. The season go on. You playing guard yeah, left guard, left guard and the season went on. This was my junior year of college, but my redshirt sophomore year Okay, because I got redshirt the first year.
Speaker 1:So my redshirt, sophomore year, but I'm a junior in the school. So it's three years in the college and the whole season go by and it's like every month or two the head coach calls me and he tells me the scholarship's coming, the scholarship's coming, just keep working. All my teammates coming up to me hey, bro, you still not on scholarship. What's going on? You not on scholarship yet. I'm like bro, I don't know what's up with the scholarship thing, but scholarship not even on my mind anymore. I'm like bro, I don't know what's up with the scholarship thing, but scholarship not even on my mind. No more, I'm just focused on performing on this film. So these scouts can come check me out, that's all I want. They just need to see what I can do, give me a chance, and that's all I need, just like I did here. That's all I need, just a chance. So everybody coming in the scholarship buddy tripping the trip, it's way out there. I'm like, bro, it's straight, bro, it's straight. So I go a whole season no scholarship, no scholarship. I still prefer to walk on, still paying everything out of my pocket meals and classes. So the whole season went by. I'm starting okay cool. I got a season full of fame.
Speaker 1:After that it was the 2020 season came up. The 2020 season was coming up and that's when COVID hit. Covid started coming around. They gave us this volunteer year where you could play or you could opt out, but it wouldn't count against you. And around that time we had a break, right before they told us about the COVID, because we went shut down and then it was come back into school.
Speaker 1:So, during the shutdown, me and my little brother because I have a little brother, he's two years younger than me we at home playing a game during the shutdown, we all playing 2K all day, all day and night, all day and night Playing 2K, trying to be the best, trying to be the best, trying to get on YouTube and streams, and just playing the game. And one day it's just this one particular day we just lose every single. We played like 20 2K games and we lost every single game. And I was in the back room. He was in the living room because we stayed with our grandparents. I stayed with my grandparents most of my life and my mom moved in with my grandparents. So it was my grandma, my grandma and my brother. Yeah, me and my brother. It was five people in a what four three-bedroom house. So me and my brother slept together throughout middle school and high school, together in one room and they had their own separate room, but we all stayed in one household. So that was the biggest motivation for me to get to the NFL and change all these, because we'll never do this again, We'll never feel like there's none of that.
Speaker 1:So during the COVID, during the COVID, everybody you know everybody at home, all the kids on the game and we lost 20 games straight. So I'm in the back room, he in the living room, he, he said, bro, we got to figure out a way to make some money or something. I'm like, bro, you ain't never lie because the game getting old, later on that day I kid you, not two hours later on that day, because it was like 9, 10 o'clock in the morning I say later on that day, about two, three hours later, he gets a call from his friend, childhood friend. He was like hey, bro, you ever heard about Forex? You ever heard about Forex?
Speaker 1:And he was like nah, and he gave him the rundown about Forex and then he brought me the phone. He was like he said Eric man, he put him on speaker. He said you got a list to do? He talking about making some money in Forex trading. I'm like trading. I said I heard about it before. It was like stocks, right. He was like yeah, so I gave him, I gave him my opening ill, and he gave me the rundown about trading in the forest market and come to find out they the mark, the thing that he was selling, the product that he was selling.
Speaker 1:It wasn't about trading for us, it was about it was really a pyramid scheme called iml International Markets Live and it was like I get on the phone and I recruit you to be on my team. And then you get on the phone, you recruit people and the more people I get, that's a weekly and a monthly check that I get coming in weekly just for having a team. And then you and how many people I'm using. So pretty much a pyramid scheme. But at the grand scheme of things, I never cared about the pyramid scheme and making money that way. I just wanted to know about how to trade and make money on my own Because they told me you can make money from a blink of an eye and a blink of an eye, just with a click of a button. And I'm like I said what? So I go? They gave us courses to go through to learn how to trade. And, man bro, we smoke weed. We didn't do no other drug, we smoked we and we was drinking. So during covet, playing the game, we'll be drinking drunk, playing the game, smoking, get high. Playing the game. I finally found something that I could lock in and play. I can play just like the game and learn and master, but make money with it. I kid you not, we went 24-hour days smoking weed and just locked in on the same computer, going up and down, just going through, course to course, to course to course, trying to figure out the basics and how to trade and make money. I finally figured out how to do everything, from the basics to what a candlestick is, to how to read a chart, this, that, and now I'm ready to risk my money to try to make even more money.
Speaker 1:Day by day, day, we just day by day. We just put money in taking the trade losing, put money in taking the trade losing. But I kid you, not the first day, the first day we made a little profit. We probably made five dollars. Okay, cool, made five dollars. And every single day after I made that five dollars, that was like an adrenaline rush, like, okay, it's for real, like I can pull, I pulled it out and I put it in my bank account. I'm like, okay, so the money really came to my bank account and it's real. I said, okay, that's all I needed to see. So where?
Speaker 2:were you? Were you working to get the money to be able to invest in, or where were you getting?
Speaker 1:I was asking my grandparents for the money. I asked them for $50 here, $50 there, $50 there, $50 there. I wasn't betting the whole $50, cop, I knew about risk management. I was risking this much money to make this much money. But I wasn't going to use the whole $50, just so I could have more in the tank just in case I lose. Just in case I lose, I got more in the tank to keep trying. $50 get added up, $50 get added up. And they're like all right, now we're not giving you no more money. I'm like all right, cool, cool. Thank y'all, but it's all right, I'm finna, do it big now.
Speaker 1:And another way the money was coming in was with the people who were recruiting, because we had a team. I had my own team, my brother had his own team on the one bigger person and we had weekly checks coming in because one person was like $230. You get five people on the team. That's like what I think $400 to $500 every week. You get 10 to 20 people. That was like $1,000 a week. So we had that type of money coming in finally. So I have to ask them for the $50 number. So I'm blowing those checks weekly, trying to trade every single day, putting the whole check in, trying to trade, make money every single day.
Speaker 1:Nothing Losing, losing my two third, lose my two third, lose my two third. So while I'm not studying, I'm on the phone trying to get people hey, yeah, bro, yeah, you got to come join. Who is that you got to come join? I get them to join. I get 230. I get 230. I'm like, okay, cool, it's time to trade again.
Speaker 1:And I'm constantly in that cycle, constantly in that cycle for about a good month and I had a girlfriend at that time, first love. I was 325 and I've never been in any relationship no, nothing. Only because I was fat and I hated myself. I was with my first girlfriend at the time when COVID hit. During that time I'm learning how to trade and I'm on the phone constantly, all day and night.
Speaker 1:Females, they don't like that. They want attention. And she wasn't getting no attention and she had went into the Air Force. So she was in the Air Force doing her thing, working, and I'm constantly trying to learn how to trade so I can provide for me, just in case football don't work and we still got a life, just in case you want to get out of the Air Force and I'm trading, so you and we still got a life. Just in case you want to get out of the air force and I'm trading so you don't have to do. You don't have to do that, you just wake up, live life. I got the money, I'm provider, I'm good. It ain't go like that.
Speaker 1:It went more like her telling me she she felt like she was getting neglected and I'm telling her, like this is for, this is for us, so we can have a backbone and I won't have to ask for no money, because I hated asking for anything. I would be dead broke, I would go hungry and I would starve. Even in college I would go hungry and I would starve, just so I wouldn't ask nobody for anything. That was always me. I hated asking for anything. She was telling me how she was feeling neglected, this, and that she wasn't feeling appreciated. I'm like you have a money-making machine and a cycle because you go to work here in the Air Force so you're automatically good. As long as you wake up, you're good Me. If football don't work for me, I can have trading to rely on because it's constant money. All you're doing is using your mind to make money. So I'm putting all my time and all my effort into making money, getting people on my team so I can learn how to make money and make money. So when she told me that I go to my mentor and I'm like, hey, bro, this trading thing is not working out. I'm going to need some help and I need some reinforcement so I can start making some money and show like I'm not just doing this for show, I'm really making money, and he was like, okay, yo, bro, just give me the run around, come to find out.
Speaker 1:He never knew how to trade. Cause, you know, the universe or God, whatever, everybody believes in the truth gonna show eventually the truth going to show Whatever's in the dark going to come to light. It finally came to light. It finally came to light and all he wanted was just a huge team so he can be making millions of money. Me and my brother, we told him we was like, bro, we don't care about the money coming in weekly like that, we want to know how to trade. Remember, we need money. We can go in, open his laptop, click a button and wait and wait for our money to be made. And he never could give us the signs or the tools or the road to get to that place. So we cut him out of all ties. We cut him out of all ties.
Speaker 1:We finally found somebody off Instagram, another black dude who was from the ghetto, worked at Burger King, worked at all these fast food chains. He found out about trading. He made a living off trading. We got in his course, still trying to learn how to trade, get money, get money to learn how to trade. It still don't work out. We started jumping from course to course to course and nothing's working at all. Nothing at all is working, nothing.
Speaker 1:My girlfriend, she finally gets fed up with me. She just tells me she's like, bro, yeah, this is what we got going. It's not going to work out. And I'm like, what you mean? Like I'm doing this for us? And she's like, no, I'm feeling I'm neglecting, I'm not feeling appreciated. This and that All the emotions that a female go through. She's not hearing it. So she cut me off in the relationship, all ties gone.
Speaker 1:So now me and bro, we go back. We back in middle Tennessee. Now we go back up to middle Tennessee because it's time the football season is going to start. Coming back in, they're going to tell us what we're going to do. So we start having these meetings like, okay, this is what's going on right now, this is how it's going to work. You either can play or you can sit out for the year. We're up here in the college dorms, we're in the college dorms. I finally tell my coaches yeah, I'm not playing this year, I'm just going to take this year off. I ain't tell them about the training. I just told them I was just going to be training getting ready for next season.
Speaker 2:So this is 2021, then the 2021-2022?. You already had a freshman redshirt year and now you're going to take it, so you're just going to play two full years as you're playing.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:That's correct.
Speaker 1:So now I told them yeah, I'm not playing this year COVID, I'm not to 100% with it. It's cool because when we came back up to school we had volunteer workouts and we had volunteer meetings. So now we're having voluntary film sessions. They're not really voluntary, but they just say volunteer but they're not really voluntary. So we have to be in there and COVID going around, people getting their shots and stuff, people getting tested, we getting tested each and every day, throughout everything. And people start coming out with COVID on the football team. Everybody started coming out with COVID on the football team. Everybody started coming out having COVID.
Speaker 1:And if you got COVID, they send you to a whole other home by yourself, like you're still in Murphree, bro, but you're in a house abandoned house by yourself, brand new, but abandoned house by yourself, until you get cleared. You get cleared after a week they say five to seven days you're cleared to come back with the team. I kid you not, it's 17 offensive linemen in the room. I'm sitting in the front. I'm right here in front of the Promethean board where we watch film at. It's the first five offensive linemen, the starting five, the second stream behind them, the third stream behind them and on and on. I kid you not.
Speaker 1:We came out of workouts in the film room one day and one of my buddies in the offensive line room, he told me he said, bro, you know Michael, just for example, you know Michael had COVID. They said Michael had COVID last week, at the beginning of this week, and I'm like if he had COVID, why he in the meeting room with us DJ, going to get all sick, you feel me? And I'm like, yeah, that ain't it.
Speaker 1:And offensive linemen. We always touching. We always have to be touching, forming each other up, putting pad on pad, pretty much because we're in the trenches. So that's what we do and come to find out is more people, more people start coming out with COVID, but they not telling them or sending them home, they just keeping them in practice, keeping them in flow. Yeah, and one day, one day in the film room, I see it's, it's 17 offensive linemen in the film room and from the stories that I hear going around the locker room, out of all the names that I heard, me and my locker mate, we counted how many people had COVID on the offensive line. It's 17 people in the room and 10 had COVID. And I'm like I said, oh no, no, no, no, I'm not getting COVID. If I get COVID, it's just going to be because I got it. I call it, but intentionally, oh no, I said no, no. So that's what led me to leaving the football alone for them telling the coach yeah, I'm not doing it this year, I went the next year. It's cool, I'll just take this year off, but I'll be training. That's what gave me the green light for training. I'm not playing football.
Speaker 1:Jay broke up with my first love. It's just me and my brother in an apartment complex on campus Every day. We've always been the fitness men, my brother. We always want to act. We always want to bang popping out of the air. We always want to be in shape, phenomenal shape. So we told ourselves. We said, okay, we're going to get in shape and we're going to be trading, so we're going to have the best of both worlds. We're going to have the body, we're going to have the look and we're going to be trading, so we're going to have the best of both worlds. We're going to have the body, we're going to have the look and we're going to have the money. So we can do whatever we want to do whenever we want to do it.
Speaker 2:And ain't nobody going to tell us different.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it was one day every, all right. So, yeah, let me see how can I put this. So I was okay, I opted out of the football season and he was a freshman coming in. It was right before fall, so I'd say spring or summer workout. I know he was going to volunteer workouts while I was at home trading and making money. I trade between 9 and 11 am. He was going to work out. It's around 7 o'clock, so he was going to work out.
Speaker 1:I wake up, I'm trading, waiting on my setup to happen each and every day. By the time he come on, I done made $100. I done made $100. I done made $100. I'm like, okay, cool, it was one day he came home. And it was one day he came home, and it was one. It was one morning. It was about 6 AM.
Speaker 1:I got up for early trade set up and the trade was around, like it was at like $40, $50. He went to practice for two hours, came back and the, the $40, $40, $50 jumped up to $500. And I'm he walked in the house and I'm like yo, yo, yo, bro, bro, hey, $500 is on the screen right here, my boy. Hey, ain't no more football. And he was like bro, you just made $500? Why was that practice for two hours? Oh, I'm not going to practice, no more. It's all with football. We finna work on trading Every single day.
Speaker 1:From that point on, what he told? He told the coaches that he was out and out of trading. I mean, he was out and out of football for the year and we was just going to be trading. So every single day we doing the same thing waking up, working out trading, waking up, working out trading. But the workouts was just it working out trading. Waking up, working out trading. But the workouts was just, it was just go to the weight room, get a pump and come on back home, eat and then trade, eat and then trade. It was a repetitive cycle. And, remind you, we're not on scholarships, so we just we're paying for the rooms on campus and we're still paying for meals.
Speaker 1:So this guy a coach, he's a coach, but he's from Albany, georgia. He comes to us and a week later he's like hey, y'all boys, if y'all not playing football this year, y'all not going to be able to stay on campus in this room. And we're like what you mean? We're paying for this room, so we going to be able to stay on campus. He's like, no, this room, this room gonna be for somebody that's playing this year. That's not opting out, so y'all gonna have to move out by friday. What they told her. And that day it was what? Wednesday. Oh gosh, it was wednesday. They told we had to be out by friday. So we like we said, okay, cool, we call. I call my mom and I'm like, hey, they say we got to be out of here by Friday. And she's like, okay, tell them to get you to Saturday. We'll come up, we'll get y'all and bring out Beth Alvin. I said, beth Alvin, we ain't finna do that. So we ended up calling my mom and we got the extension to Saturday. So they gave us the extension to Saturday.
Speaker 1:We found the apartment complex to stay in. Actually, I had an apartment complex being cleaned out for me for the year, but it wasn't ready yet. I had to move all my stuff in the storage and I was staying on campus with my brother I'm sleeping on the couch and he in his room and then they tell us this information. We're like, dang bro, okay, we got to go somewhere. Now we either go back to Albany or we find an apartment complex we can move into. Now I'm like I'm not going back to Albany, bro, I just stay with somebody. He was like, bro, we can't stay with somebody, right? Our parent, my mom, she told us she was like, yeah, y'all, just put y'all stuff in the storage and you just go stay with a teammate, see if you can find a teammate or a friend and just stay with them until your room opens up, because my room ain't open up until about another two, three weeks.
Speaker 1:So the two, three weeks go by, saturday come up and we get everything out of the apartment complex and we move in with a friend. We got two air mattresses, they got an open room and we doing our thing, they going to practice each and every day and we waking up, we go get a workout, we drinking, we smoking, but we done made money or we done lost money. Nine times out of ten we done lost money. So we trying to smoke, drink and work out to get that out of our mind, because we need to focus on winning instead of losing, because we're trading them losses and them emotions that each of us have. That's the only way we can cope with it with a workout and with smoking Every day for the next two, three, four weeks.
Speaker 1:We're waking up, losing money, losing money, losing money. But it was some days we made money and we'll show our teammates like, hey, y'all boy going to practice, we're making money $200 on the screen, $300 on the screen, $200. But come to find out we're just making money and losing it, making money and blowing it. We finally move to our apartment company to open up. We tell them thank you. We moved to our apartment company. This around 2022. 2022. We're still enrolling in classes and things like that, but everything is still online because COVID is still in effect and we're just by ourselves.
Speaker 1:Now we moved into a two-man bedroom, two-man apartment bedroom, and we're doing online classes, but we still focus all on trading. We got so locked in and focused on trading that all we did we was running 24-hour days. So if we wake up and we stop trading live money just so we can start practicing and studying and implement what we were studying, we'll wake up at 7 am, eat breakfast and we'll start studying from 8 am and we'll run the whole day from 8 am to the next 8 am of the next day on this computer studying, just going all in trying to figure out 8 am to the next 8 am of the next day on this computer, really Studying, just going all in trying to figure out how can we make money. What are we going wrong at? Why is it going wrong?
Speaker 1:We doing this occasionally day on day off, day on day off, and in between we done started door dashing so we don't have to ask about it for money and we still have online classes and stuff. So we're doing door dash online classes, day trading, door dash online class day trading because we don't want to ask our people for their money. We're like we've grown, we need y'all help now. We got to stand up. I didn't like asking for nothing, he didn't like asking for nothing, so that was a no-no. He ain't like asking for nothing, so that was a no no. So we door dashing one day.
Speaker 1:We probably do a door dashing one day. We start doing 5 hours in the AM and then 5 hours at night, 5 hours in the AM, 5 hours at night, making $100 or $200, just so I have enough money to day trade with. He have enough money to day trade with. So we got to run the whole day of door dashing multiple days just to make money to day trade with. He have no money to day trade with. We got to run the whole day of door dashing multiple days just to make money to trade and eat. Man, we make them $200 one day.
Speaker 1:We wake up at 8 am to 11 am trying to trade. We lose $100. It's a repetitive cycle over and over and over and over again. Now we're not even doing schoolwork, no more. We and trading Door to action, working out trading Door to action, working out trading. That's all we know right now. We start getting behind in class, we start failing class. My mom, she called and she's like I got to start doing y'all work now because we're still paying for classes. We're like, yeah, all right, we'll do it, just brushing it off.
Speaker 1:We end up going to Brentwood, tennessee. It's in the Nashville Tennessee area. We see all these big houses. We meet all these famous superstars while we door dashing. We know when you go to Brentwood they'll give you extra tips and stuff just for bringing their food because they're nice. We're like we're going to do this.
Speaker 1:We run the whole day in Brentwood and we on the way back home one night and we listened to NBA Youngboy that's my favorite rapper, that's who I listen to. And we listened to a song and we just rapping. We exhausted it because every day, while we do it, we always start off eating a pizza. We split one big pizza, so I get four slices, he get four slices. And then at night I get four slices, he get four slices with a whole nother pizza with the money that I made. So we eat pizza and we do it.
Speaker 1:And one night we, on our way back home, eat pizza and the rapper, young boy, he say it's a song called Playing. And he said he was telling. He pretty much told me stop doing what other people want you to do. You got a vision. Speak your mind and just let it be. That's pretty much what the song ought to be. Say what you're feeling, say what you're feeling and just live out your dream.
Speaker 1:And I heard the certain verse that he said and I replayed it and I said, bro, you should have heard that. I said, like I'm driving. I said that's exactly what I'm going to do. I said, bro, I'm going to do what I want to do, which is trade and make money for a living, and school is just a distraction right now. So I told my bro, I'm like because he in the car with my little brother. He's two years younger than me. I said, bro, I'm going to call my mom, I'm going to call my mom and grandma and granddaddy and I'm going to tell them we're not doing college. No more, bro, like college is dead, it's over, we're driving out Kids. You know, I probably had what? Two more years, had a year and a half left. I had a year and a half left.
Speaker 1:I didn't have a solidified course either. I mean a solidified major. Before I started playing football, my first year going into school 2017, I majored in psychology, general psychology. I flunked psychology and I went to the second year. I went to what? Electromechanical engineering. I never got into the engineering classes, but I went through all the core curriculum class like algebra, the pre-cal, the calculus, all that Right before I started playing. Remember, I told right before I started playing. Remember, I told you right before I started.
Speaker 1:I got, I lost out of it and I got in shape and the coach told me I was going to play my um. What? What do you call those guys, the ones that look over the academic advisors? The um athletic academic advisor? They told me I didn't have enough credit hours to play football. So they were going to have to put me in a major that would allow me to play. And I'm like okay, cool, you can try my major. I ain't got to solidify major Kid, you not, I never.
Speaker 1:My first three years, my first two to three years, I didn't go to no classes with any football player, no sport player, just regular student. They put me in a major called LSTS. It's called Leisure, sports Tourism Studies. Never heard of it. Lsts my first day in there I see all the football players, I see all the basketball players, I see the tennis and I'm like so this is where y'all been. Y'all been at LST, this is where y'all been. Y'all been in LSTs Just doing y'all things. Y'all ain't got to focus on a number of sports. Because when I got my schedule it said intro to football, intro to soccer, intro to golf, intro to tennis. I'm like, oh, y'all ain't been doing nothing, y'all ain't been stressing about nothing. So all that came into play.
Speaker 1:When I was listening to that verse, that dude said and I'm like yeah, bro, all this is just a distraction. It's not going to get me no money in life, it's not going to get me where I want to be. So I'm finna cut out Kyler. That same night we got home from Brentwood I FaceTimed my mama. I put up on FaceTime. I said look, I love y'all. I know y'all wanted us to finish kyle, but we're not finishing college, we're dropping that and we're gonna go all in on trading.
Speaker 2:And she's like you didn't call her and tell her. You put it on facebook no, I put it up.
Speaker 1:I caught on face time oh, face time.
Speaker 2:Okay, caught on.
Speaker 1:FaceTime oh, facetime. Okay, I didn't see it. I caught on FaceTime yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm serious, I was like, yeah, I ain't playing, I'm serious, we finna do this. And I caught on tell. I told him like yeah, it's old way, we not, finna, do college no more. And she's like what, you mean you not doing college no more? Y'all, finna, graduate. You only got a year and a half left.
Speaker 1:And I'm like mom, I don't have a solidified major and I'm not just finna, go to college just to get a sheet of paper for validation that I finished college and I'm just keep spending money. And she's like, no, you're going to do this. And I'm like, okay, you're going to see. And she go get my grandparents, put them on. She's going to get my grandparents. She hangs up the phone. We get my grandparents. They call me hey, what's going on here? You finna, drop out. I gave them a run down. They're like this is the dumbest decision you ever made. This is a stupid decision. I'm just looking at my brother like, oh, they don't get it. They don't get it. I'm finna, use this as motivation to get me where I need to be in life. My mama called me and she like, yeah, okay, if you drop out, if you and your brother drop out, we're cutting y'all off like we're having no ties with y'all, ain't nothing going on.
Speaker 1:We're not paying y'all no, as long as we in college. They paying our rent and they making sure we good those in the food and living in spaces. They making sure we good with rent and water bill. So they were like, if y'all do this, we're not paying y'all rent, we're not doing it. They just giving us excuses on what they gonna do if we drop out and we like, okay, time to man up. So we do that. We drop out. Here we go the man maker. So we drop out, we get the trade in, we're doing our thing, still going, going.
Speaker 1:And my mom, she's not that type of person. She just wanted us to fulfill a dream that they had of going to college, working. Yeah, definitely. They wanted us to go to college, find a good job and work, make sure we solidified in life and we good. A week go by and that same weekend she called me back and she was crying. She's like I know what I did was wrong. She pretty much was apologizing because she was like we men, it's time for us to man up and we're going to do what we need to do. Her and my grandparents on the phone telling us we back y'all up. We were just mad at the moment, but we back y'all up 110% and we got y'all with anything y'all need. We were like, okay, thank you, but we got this on our own.
Speaker 1:We stayed at DoorDash and trading DoorDash, working out trading DoorDash, working out trading. One day, while we were working out, one day, while we were day trading, we put on some music off a YouTube video and the rapper Gucci Mane come up. He's been locked up. One day, while we day training, we put on some music off a YouTube video and the rapper Gucci Mane come up. He been locked up for five years and he come up with a music video. And kids you know, me and him were both like the same size, the same shape stomach hanging out here. And he get on the music video and I see this man in shape, he like he six-pack ass. He, he all ready, he tatted up there. And I look at my brother. I'm like I say, bro, if he can do it, I know for a fact there ain't no way I can't do that. So, trading, I told myself that I was going to get that phenomenal look right, though. That's what I'm working towards that phenomenal look Just like he got, that's what I'm finna get. So I is focused on working that because we always me and bro we always work that hard. We just want that look, we always want that look. But when we see him, that just kicked it up to another notch, a whole new level. So now we're going even harder on the fitness and the training, fitness and training, fitness and training. We find us a job or two. We find a job. We quit the job because we day trade and found a job, quit the job because we day trade and I was around.
Speaker 1:I got down to about during during the fitness journey. I went through all the diets. I'll tell you now. I went through all the diets. I went through the pescatarian diet for about six months. I did the vegan diet for about a year. I did the fruit fasting for about three to six months. I did all the diets, the carnivore diet. I was trying all the diets just to get in shape, phenomenal shape, like Gucci was looking, but I could never get it. I do all this hard work and I could never get it.
Speaker 1:So I was still day training and we was working at FedEx. We were delivering packages for FedEx and one day before FedEx came by no, one day before we went into work. It was like around 8 am. We had to be there at 9 am. It was a big news impact event for day trading and I watched with a blink of an eye. $200 turned into $5K in a blink of an eye. So it was a countdown three, two, one.
Speaker 1:A new camera came up and my brother, he yelled at me. He said, bro, you still in that trade? I said yeah. He said, man, go look at it. I look at it. It went from $200 to $5K. We quit the job instantly, quit. Look at it, it went from $200 to $5,000. We quit the job, instantly Quit. We say y'all, we're not coming in, no more. Thank y'all for hiring us, but we're not coming in. We finished. Now I got some money. I think I know what I really know. I know what to do. It's just fitness and training. The money run out and we got to find a new job.
Speaker 1:We started standing that cycle right there, working out, trying to get in the best possible shape Trading job, make some money, trading. Quit the job. We went to FedEx. We went to rooms to go moving furniture making money. We worked at rooms to go moving furniture making money. We worked at rooms to go about four or five months, made a big profit trading Quit. We went to a plant site. It was a temporary job, it's called temp service job. We got hired on for about five to six months, made some big profit quick. We went to what is it called General Mills where they make auto parts, working 12, 16 hour shift, 4 pm to 4 am. Right after them jobs we go work out in the weight room, go to sleep, wake up, trade. We end up getting fired from that job and we just go in it's just a steady cycle trying to get in shape.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you're trying everything you possibly can in order to pursue your dream in trading. At the same time, you're working out and fitness. And then what blows up for you as you continue? Where are you kind of at now? What's happening as you're doing this?
Speaker 1:So now I'm saying, I'm telling bro, like I said, I don't know about trading, bro, but some got to work out for us. We're not going to work all our life. We're going to work to pay our bills and to eat, but we're not going to work all our life, bro, this is not us. It don't even feel right just working all our life. Anytime we say that we'll make a big profit with trading and they'll come in and they'll go. They'll come in and they'll go. They'll come in and they'll go. Stay the cycle, stay the cycle, stay the cycle.
Speaker 1:We ended up moving out of the apartment. We came into this home and we're still doing the same thing. Now we're back at FedEx but we're not delivering packages. We went back to FedEx like three, four, five times delivering packages, but now we're back at FedEx and we're working a night shift and we're loading the packages onto the trucks during the night show. Right at the night she will go work out of the gym tree and that's the cycle right there for about another year, okay, and I'm still out of shape, I know.
Speaker 2:I don't.
Speaker 1:You went to what you said you're out of shape, okay, okay. So now, during the years, I don't stop playing football. I'm going to drop out of college. It's around 2023, 2024. We moved into the home, into this home, around 2024. So we did constant trading and working out for three to four years with a job, with different jobs, cycling jobs for three to five years, because we start in 2022, 23, 24. Yeah, so 22. We dropped out in 22, 23, 24. So three years is just straight trading, trading, fitness and job. That's the steady cycle.
Speaker 1:Each and every day, I keep telling, bro, I know this, trading over here. I know trading over here. I know trading over here. I done. Made up in my mind trading is for me. I am a day trader. There's nothing else in the world for me to do but day trade. Wake up, click a button, make money. I'm not doing nothing else in the world for me to do but they trade. Wake up, click a button, make money. I'm not doing nothing else. I don't care what happened, this is going to happen. We're going to make this happen. One day, I get home from FedEx and working out and I'm like, bro, something, it got to be something. I'm in a car by myself and I'm like, bro, something got to give, because I'm tired of this cycle and I just want to be rich. I just want to make money, I want to be rich, I'm scrolling on.
Speaker 1:Instagram just sending the call. This dude named Wes Watson comes across my Instagram. I hear the intensity and what he's giving out. He's talking about self-improvement, personal development, being yourself. Right, it's starting out by fitness Pretty much fitness, personal development and becoming the best version of you. It just resonates the way he's giving off his message. It just resonates. It's him in.
Speaker 1:I'm like I know it's my intuition, but I'm like something's telling me to just see what bro got going on and maybe invest in him. I listened to him for a couple days. I'm watching his YouTube. I'm watching his Instagram each and every day. It just starts sticking to him.
Speaker 1:Sticking to him, he's pretty much telling you and showing you testimonials on how he got people from fat and out of shape to ripped up, peeled and in shape phenomenal shape and I'm looking. I'm like, bro, I know I can do that. I've been working At this time. I'm like 260, 270, 260. So I done went from 325 and over the time span of two, three years, I done got down to 260, 270. So I'm like I still don't look like Gucci man, so it ain't right. I ain't did something right. So I'm like all I hear now is him talking about investing yourself so you can become your best self. So I'm like okay, I always invested in myself with trading, let me invest in myself and get my body right, and maybe trading will finally go right yeah I ended up investing on the three month and I did a yearly, a yearly transformation course.
Speaker 1:I I bought his program for the year and the first three months in the first three months I went from. I went from 260 and I dropped down to 220. Whoa, I'm like, I said whoa, whoa. I said whoa nah, whoa nah, no, yeah, the first three months.
Speaker 2:Wow, okay, you're. 100 pounds less than you were Right, yeah, the first two months before you started.
Speaker 1:Wow, okay, you're 100 pounds, less than so. First, three months, right. So two cents to the 230. I hit 230. I'm like three months, okay. Six months roll around because I see results and change, so I'm gonna keep doing it.
Speaker 1:Six months roll around and I'm like Six months roll around. I'm like I see a whole different child. I go from 330 to 325, 320, 319, 350. I'm like, oh, this is right, this is it. I'm feeling my best self. Everything is going right in life, all because I started investing in myself Instead of locking in on the messages of him talking about creating your best self.
Speaker 1:It's now time to create your best self and then give that person to the world and start helping people that you overcame and went through. Those messages start resonating with me. I'm like I done overcame a lot. I done dropped over 100 pounds. I done got in shape. Everybody that once knew me I was overly fat. I was 325 pounds. Now I'm 220. That's the biggest jump ever. I done went through heartbreak. I done used heartbreak as motivation to keep me purpose-driven with training. I done gained all this wisdom, all this knowledge from all these people I done learned from through jobs and just living life. I'm like bro, I can teach people anything I want. I felt like, whatever anybody in the world is going through, I done been through it and I got the keys to help you get through what you're going through, except for going to jail, going to prison and doing hard drugs other than weed and drinking. I got the keys.
Speaker 1:I'm like yeah, bro, I feel like I can teach and help people. I invest in this program to start helping people overcome what they're going through. What's mainly been attracted to me are people who going from fat and that want to be fit, like I did, because that's my instagram e2 fit, because I went from fat to feet. So now I'm out of moves, away from trading, and now I'm more focused on, and now I'm more focused on self-development, self-improvement, self-development, self-improvement and fitness and nutrition. So now I'm coming out on the mat with self-development, self-improvement, fitness and nutrition and helping people become the best version of themselves, all through mindset, fitness and nutrition. And then, once you become your best self, you get that person to grow and, whatever you went through, you help others achieve what you went through and overcome what you went through. So that's my story.
Speaker 2:Man, I love it. Thank you for sharing, because there's so many people out there that would love to be able to become the person that they need to be. One of the things that I do through my coaching and stuff is help people become the person they need to be in order to do what God put them on this planet to do.
Speaker 2:And I love to see that you're doing that, that you're working on that, that you have the tenacity, that you're not giving up that you're. You know there's just some fine line things to tune. Now. It's like, okay, so now how do we create a business that would then allow you to be, whether it's podcasting, whether it's, you know, coaching, whether it's because you have all those tools? You know, and I know your dream was the trading and the day trading and that kind of stuff, but to see that you won't quit, that you won't stop, and so there's so much of that that I see in your future. You said you're 25 now. Is that what you said? Or how old are you now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So we got to get you a millionaire by 30.
Speaker 2:Right you're 25 now is that what you said, or how do you know? 20, yeah, yeah, so we gotta, we gotta get you a millionaire by 30, right? So you know that that is okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, you have a story to tell and you have, uh, you've done it right, because there's so many people who talk about it. You know there's so many people who said you know I would have, could have, should I want to. You know, I think, like you know, b do have where you become the person you need to be so you can do the thing you're put on the start to do. Then you get to have, and what a lot of people try to do is they try to have to be right. They say I, I need to have this, I'm going to go do all this stuff, but they haven't become the person that can do it yet. And so by you working on your personal development, by you working on the things that you need to do, you know to become that person that's going to may automatically allow you to do the things and then have the lifestyle that you want.
Speaker 2:So so, yeah, I know we're out of time on our podcast today, but I can't wait to continue to have conversations with you, talk with you, follow up on you. You know let's see what you're doing in six months. You know I got some. I got some ideas and some books and stuff that I'm going to, you know, to send your way and you know. But I sure thank you for being on today and just talking to us and being vulnerable enough to share your life because so many people won't do that.
Speaker 2:So many people will just say you know, I'm doing good, I'm doing good, I'm doing good, you know, and don't tell you. You know, do I have an issue with you dropping out of college?
Speaker 2:Absolutely not you know, if it wasn't the thing that you were going to do. You know, and you knew that that wasn't where your life needed to go, and you know, I just, I guess, want to encourage you to continue to keep up. Whatever that is your destiny, keep up the discipline, keep up, because anybody who knows how to lose 100 pounds knows how to be disciplined, knows how to be consistent, knows how to get what they want. And so we'll, you know, we'll talk some offline, and so, for those of you who just watched this, you're going to follow us, we're going to follow back up with Eric, and you know we're going to talk some offline, and so, for those of you who just watched this, you're going to follow us.
Speaker 2:We're going to follow back up with Eric and we're going to keep rooting him on and keep making sure that he gets the things that he needs to be able to have in order to do it. So go ahead and subscribe, do all the things that you need to do for YouTube, and then we'll be back with you on the next one. So don't forget.
Speaker 2:You are God's greatest gift. He loves you. If you allow him to and we, my friend, will talk to you on the next one. So I have, oh my gosh, what's going on with my computer here. Oh my gosh, my computer's like locked up. So, oh, here we go. We will take that part out. We will see you on the next one.